THE GERMAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS AND ARMAMENTS

Written:Written on May 17 (30), 1913Published:Published on May 22, 1913 inPravdaNo. 116.

      Printed from thePravdatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      pages242-243.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

TheBudget Commission of the German Reichstag has
passed the first reading of the Arms Bill. There is no doubt
that its adoption is assured. The government of the
Junkers—those brothers of our Purishkevich and Markov—is
“working” hand in hand with the German bourgeoisie on
new methods of oppressing the people, while increasing
the profits of the capitalist manufacturers of the weapons
of destruction. The manufacturers of war supplies and
equipment are doing good business. The young hopefuls
of the Prussian nobility are anticipating the pleasure of
getting “additional” appointments as officers. All the
ruling classes are satisfied—and what are modern parliaments
but instruments for doing the will of the ruling classes.

Inorder to justify the new armaments, there are the
usual efforts to paint a picture of the perils threatening
the “fatherland”. To scare the German philistine, the
German Chancellor has raised, among other things, the
bogey of theSlav peril. The Balkan victories, you see,
have strengthened “Slavdom”, which is hostile to the
whole “German world”! Pan-Slavism, the idea of uniting
all the Slavs against the Germans—there lies the peril,
the Junkers’ Chancellor assures them.

TheGerman Social-Democrats have exposed, and continue
steadfastly to expose in their press, their parliamentary
speeches and at meetings, these hypocritical, chauvinist
outbursts. There is a state, the Social-Democrats have
said, the majority of whose population is Slav and which
has long enjoyed political liberty and constitutional order.
It is Austria. It is quite absurd to fear military designs
on the part of that state.

Pinneddown by the Social-Democrats, the German
Chancellor referred to the noisy Pan-Slavist
manifestations in St. Petersburg. That’s a wonderful argument!
The manufacturers of guns, armour, gunpowder and
other “cultural” requirements wish to enrich themselves
both in Germany and in Russia, and in order to fool the
public each refers to the other. Russian chauvinists are
being used to scare the Germans, and German chauvinists,
the Russians! Both play a miserable role in the hands of
the capitalists, who know perfectly well that the very
idea of a war by Russia against Germany is ridiculous.

Werepeat that the German chauvinists are assured of
a majority vote in the Reichstag. But among the German
workers there is growing indignation and demand for more
than purely parliamentary means of struggle against the
shameless plundering of the people’s money by the
chauvinists. It is interesting to note that a general meeting
of the Social-Democrats of the 1st Württemberg
constituency (Stuttgart) adopted the following resolution:

“Thisgeneral meeting expresses its regret at the fact that the
struggle against the Arms Bill in parliament is not being waged with
sufficient vigour. The meeting considers that the furious drive into the
people’s pocket by the arms manufacturers should be resisted by all
possible means. This meeting, therefore, expects the Social–
Democratic group in the Reichstag to take up the struggle when the Bill
comes out of committee for discussion by the Reichstag as a whole,
in the most energetic fashion, without hesitating to adopt even
obstructionist tactics. The meeting considers insufficient the
extraparliamentary struggle the Party has carried on until now. This meeting
demands that the Party executive should begin organising action to
involve the whole working population, including mass strikes.”

“Thisgeneral meeting expresses its regret at the fact that the
struggle against the Arms Bill in parliament is not being waged with
sufficient vigour. The meeting considers that the furious drive into the
people’s pocket by the arms manufacturers should be resisted by all
possible means. This meeting, therefore, expects the Social–
Democratic group in the Reichstag to take up the struggle when the Bill
comes out of committee for discussion by the Reichstag as a whole,
in the most energetic fashion, without hesitating to adopt even
obstructionist tactics. The meeting considers insufficient the
extraparliamentary struggle the Party has carried on until now. This meeting
demands that the Party executive should begin organising action to
involve the whole working population, including mass strikes.”

Thereis slow but steady growth of awareness among
German Social-Democrats that more resolute, active, mass
struggle by the workers is necessary. If the opportunists,
of whom there are many in the parliamentary group and
among the officials of the labour movement, are opposed
to such a struggle, the masses of workers accept it with
greater and greater sympathy.